Processes and apparatus for manufacturing plastic container products are known in the prior art as shown, e.g. by DE 199 26 329 A1. To manufacture such products, a tube of plasticized plastic material, such as polyethylene or polypropylene, is extruded into a molding device. One end of the tube is closed by heat-sealing. The closed end tube is expanded by generating a pneumatic pressure gradient acting on the tube and applied to the molding walls of the molding device, comprising two opposite individual molding halves, to form the container. In carrying out the Bottelpack® process known in this technical field, the respective plastic container is filled within the molding device under sterile conditions by a suitable charging mandrel. After the charging mandrel has been removed, the filled container is hermetically sealed and a specified head geometry is formed. For the purpose of forming the plastic container in which fluid is later stored, two individual mold halves in the form of molding jaws may be moved toward each other by, for example, hydraulic or electric drives to achieve a closing position and away in opposite directions from each other into one of their opening positions. To achieve very high ejection rates of container products, DE 103 23 335 A1 describes a multi-station arrangement, where the various molding steps are divided among different stations arranged one after the other in an imaginary circle to form a carousel arrangement, permitting very high cycle frequencies for the plastic product to be ejected. In such systems, these plastic products emerge along a production line in the form of a container chain in which a plurality of individual containers lie side by side next to one another. Further processing takes place such that in the next phase of the production line, the container blocks or ampule blocks are punched out of the container chain, in particular in the form of an ampule web, with a punching device. In each case, the blocks exhibit a number of individual containers suitable for shipping and use. Frequently, each ampule block comprises five ampules that are connected by parting lines.
The arrangement of containers, for example ampules, in blocks, is practical and advantageous in terms of packaging and shipping. However, in contrast, the use of the individual containers or ampules is less user-friendly. Even if the parting lines inside the blocks are carefully configured with thin walls, the separating process is laborious and even difficult, especially if it involves a relatively stiff synthetic plastic material, as is the case with containers made of polypropylene.